The game ended when “Black’s connection stalls.” Black got “hung up,” as we say in the South, as in, “Honey, I got hung up at work,” or, “Honey, I got hung up in traffic,” or my favorite, “Honey, I got hung up paying the bar tab.” That is when she says, “Honey, it is obvious our connection has stalled.” This actually happened to me back in the ’70’s. It went something like this:

Blues Brothers Tunnel Scene

It is not just chess playing machines that sometimes become “hung up.” A recent example would be GM John Nunn, called “Dr. Death” at the House of Pain, by a Master level player from England, David Fletcher. In an article, “John Nunn Behind the Board Again at World Seniors,” (http://www.chess.com/news/john-nunn-behind-the-board-again-at-world-seniors-2325), Peter Doggers writes, “He played his last official game of chess in August 2006, but now he’s back at the chess board: John Nunn. The English GM and acclaimed author is playing in the 50+ World Seniors in Katerini, Greece.”

Dr. Death had produced four wins and one draw before sitting down behind the Black soldiers in the sixth round to face GM Zurab Sturua from the country of Georgia.

GM Matthew Sadler left a comment on October 28, 2014, “However, this is not a dream story as of yet. Nunn’s first tournament in eight years is a tough one with no less than 11 rounds scheduled. Besides, yesterday he suffered a devastating loss”:

The Chess Bomb (http://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2014-senior/06-Sturua_Zurab-Nunn_John_D_M) showed this possible line leaving White up “only” 1.1 (20… Nb8 21. Nc5 Bc6 22. Bxd8 Rxd8 23. a4 bxa3 24. N7xe6 fxe6 25. Nxe6 Re8 26. Nxf8 Rxf8). In the modern chess world this game would have been played to checkmate, but Dr. Nunn comes from the chess world of last century. One of the kibitzers on the Bomb explained the decision to resign as ” self-disgust.” This is the kind of thing that happens to a 59 year old player who has not played in almost a decade. Fatigue takes a toll and the brain gets “hung-up.” A Senior begins playing moves that look good to him in his mind, but once played on the board he soon realizes his “connection has stalled.” This leads to what is popularly called a “brain cramp.” Nearing 60 a man realizes that out of a week of days he will have one or two when things just do not seem to compute. He is working just as hard at the board as the day before but realizes things are not quite right because his brain is “hung-up.” This is disconcerting to a Senior in the same way as when he calls on the Old Soldier to jump to “Ten Hut!” but it remains “at ease.” In addition, Dr. Nunn’s biorhythms (http://www.facade.com/biorhythm/ ) show he was, and is, at his low ebb intellectually and will stay there for the duration of the tournament. This is mitigated somewhat by his being in a high phase physically, or it could be made worse because when one has much energy it is more difficult to understand why such poor moves are being produced.

Chacha Nugroho sends this report on the Southeastern FIDE Championship, which will be held at the Charlotte Chess Center & Scholastic Academy (http://www.charlottechesscenter.org/). The first round is Friday, October 31, 2014; 7:30PM. The website (http://www.charlottechesscenter.org/#!southeast-fide-championship/cxan) shows 31 players on the Pre-Registered List, heading by GM Ben Finegold. IM’s Ronald Burnett and Kassa Korley have entered, along with FM’s William Fisher, the number two seed, and Peter Bereolos. Georgia players include Benjamin Moon; Reece Thompson; Grant Oen; Kapish Potula; Arthur Guo; & Carter Peatman.

Hi Michael,

Just want to give you information that Peter Giannatos will broadcast games from Southeastern FIDE Championship.

And in ChessStream.com as well. He as at least 1 DGT board, but we trying to provide 3 DGT boards for 3 live games. I probably will ask Peter to have scan of scoresheets during the tournament, so crowd may help to convert to PGN as well, like in US Masters.

Because of the rating cap it is difficult to take the USCL seriously. Each team must have an average rating of 2400 except when, “3. Any player rated above 2600 will count as only 2600 when determining whether a lineup has a legal average; this is done to reward teams for using the strongest players in the country on their rosters.” Or when, “4. Any player rated below 2000 will count as 2000 when determining whether a lineup has a legal average; this is done to keep lineups reasonably balanced.” (http://uschessleague.com/rules.php)

The Kings were led this season by NM Richard Francisco, who scored an amazing 7 1/2 out of 9 games. The Frisco Kid played 3 games more than any other player, and scored an astounding 4 1/2 more points than the second highest scoring player, NM Damir Studen. He also had the highest PR. If a team MVP is chosen, Mr. Francisco is the man.

Houdini 4 first went wrong with 76 b5. The program’s own analysis showed 76 Ne5, keeping the Black Knight out of f3, but for some yet as to be determined reason the program made the pawn move. Then on move 80, Houdini 4 melted down completely by trading a Rook for only pawn. Houdini’s analysis showed it was expecting 79…Ng5, but when Chiron 2 played 79…h5, Houdini 4 was obviously flummoxed. Chiron 2 showed 80 Nxh5 as best.

When asked what had gone wrong with Houdini 4 its handler said, “Today Houdini 4 passed the Turing test because it played like a human. As to why, we have just finished a psychiatric diagnostic of Houdini 4. The answer is on the screen.”

This notice appeared on the TCEC (Thoresen Chess Engine Competition) website:

“…Stage 2 will be played without an opening book this Season. This idea was advocated by several TCEC fans and Martin thought it ought to be tried. Initially I was skeptical, but after thinking about it, I could not imagine a better time or a better way to stimulate interest in the tournament. If the aim was entertainment, we had to try it. We will all see what happens and Martin will determine if bookless Stages ought to be a recurring feature in TCEC.” (http://tcec.chessdom.com/live.php)

From Chessdom.com:

“TCEC Stage 2 starts today with average ELO 3000+”

“The second stage of the Top Computer Chess Championship TCEC starts today with a brilliant field of average 3000+ ELO. The favorites Stockfish, Komodo, Houdini, and Gull, as well as ten more engines are starting the competition tonight, live at the official website.”

“This stage of TCEC is unique – the engines will not be allowed to use opening books, making TCEC a pure lab for beautiful novelties. This is the first time TCEC excludes opening books in search of discoveries of novelties and new lines, something very probable given the strength of the engines and the monster processing power of the super-computer behind TCEC.” (http://www.chessdom.com/tcec-stage-2-starts-today-with-average-elo-3000/)

Unfortunately the format is only for Stage 2.

“Stages 3 and 4, being double round robin and allowing engines to play all openings from both sides of the board, do not require the same exacting level of play-balance as Stage 1. Instead, lowering the draw-rate assumes much greater importance as otherwise you will likely see 70-75% of the games ending in draws given the hardware being used, the time control and the strength of the engines that make it into these Stages. Such a high draw-rate could get boring. We have an aversion to anything boring.”
(http://tcec.chessdom.com/live.php)

“SPICE Cup Open Saint Louis USA 2014.10.21 Position after 23 moves. A quick glance at the position of Black’s pieces on the Kingside indicates that the higher rated player (Nyzhnyk) has taken some liberties. Clearly Black’s game lacks cohesion and harmony. Even so, one feels almost sorry for Black for the BRUTAL finish that White has in store…
WHITE TO PLAY AND CRUSH!”